This Sunday I will be spending the day at Dhammagiri - the lay followers will be wearing white, taking dana, taking the 8 Precepts, maintaining silence for the day, and not eating from noon Sunday until the next day.

There will be three separate teachings by Ven. Dhammasiha spaced throughout the day - the first on the Birth of the Bodhisatta, the second on his Enlightenment, and the third on his Parinibbana.

In between the teachings and offering of the Dana to the Bhikkhus and having a communal meal, we will be sitting in silent meditation.

metta
Chris

---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

For many years, after adopting various practices, it has been standardized for my own practice to this schedule on Vesak's eve and actual day:
1. On Vesak's Eve at night, selected parts of the Paritta and Sutras are recited for about 2-3 hours at home
2. Taking up of the 8 Precepts at midnight of commencing Vesak Day and ends at midnight of next day.
3. On actual Vesak Day:
Morning: participate in an early morning Dharma Assembly in a Chinese Mahayana Buddhist Vihara
Mid Afternoon: Another round of bowing repentance and recitation at home
Evening: Join in a walking Vesak Road Procession (an estimated 10km worth of walking and the procession floats are from all participating Buddhist Traditions) starting from the Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhist Maha Vihara into certain parts of the city and back to the Maha Vihara for a farewell blessing by the Vihara's Maha Thera. One is free to recite according to one's Tradition whilst participating in the walk.

A Chinese Buddhist Buddha Gatha
In Heavens above and all below, the Buddha, incomparable,
In Tenfold Directions' Lands, peerless is He,
All in this world, have I seen, without exception,
Nothing is parallel to the Buddha

Bathing the Buddha Gatha
Now do I bathe all Tathagatas,
Adorned of Pure Wisdom, Storehouse of Merit and Virtue,
May sentient beings of five turbidities steer off defilement,
Together attain the Tathagata’s Pure Dharma Body.

Dhajagga Paritta
To those recalling the Buddha supreme,
To those recalling the Dhamma sublime,
And to those recalling the Sangha,
No fear, no terror will make them quiver.http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/auth ... ction.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

May the thrice sacred Vesak Day 2009 bring forth the blessings of the Triple Gem on all sentient beings!

Vesak falls very close to my birthday this year.
With my daughter visiting from Melbourne and my young family keen on celebrating my birthday, it will be impracticable to obvserve eight precepts on the day.
I will continue with my daily practrice and, as always around Vesak and my birthday, contemplate my gratitude to the Buddha and the Sangha for rediscovering and maintaining the Dhamma.
Metta

Ben

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

I had asked my Boss if I could have this friday off, because the Monastery is observing Vesak on the friday (quite rightly) but unfortunately due to his business commitments, he could not comply. So nI shall be working as normal....
But that's ok.
I shall rise early and have a short meditation session, re-new my vows (officially taken a year ago on Vesak day) keep the Eight, and then spend Sunday quietly as a 'double' observation....

Just to add, I do Take Refuge daily and recite the 5 precepts... but I shall do so with 'added significance' on friday.

May you all have a wonderful time and rejoice in the way most suited, appropriate and convenient to you.
Ben - have a wonderful birthday....!!

---The trouble is that you think you have time---
---Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe---
---It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

I take the 8 precepts, wear white, but with the modern clothes of white jeans and white shirt (polo or t-shirt), and sometimes go to one of the local temples with my family (wife and two kids).

Once we came to the Vesak with a large cake that read "Happy Birthday Buddha" complete with numbered candles for the year since Buddha's birth. The Sri Lankan children loved it and ate most of the cake and most of the monks accepted very small pieces for their dessert.

TheDhamma wrote:
Once we came to the Vesak with a large cake that read "Happy Birthday Buddha" complete with numbered candles for the year since Buddha's birth. The Sri Lankan children loved it and ate most of the cake and most of the monks accepted very small pieces for their dessert.

He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them.
But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion …
...
He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them … he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.John Stuart Mill

Here, now in Chiang Mai, we will journey a ways out of the city and on the evening of May 7th at sunrise we will ascend the mountain all night and at dawn we will offer candles, flowers and incense to relics of the Buddha at dawn on May 8th. I will pay homage to the Blessed One on behalf of all members of Dhamma Wheel as well if you so wish. Let me know.
metta & upekkha

“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

While the Thai full moon day is today, Vesak Day is actually celebrated in many other countries tomorrow. In any case, here's wishing everyone on DW a Happy Visakha Puja Day...may the light of the Triple Gem guide you on your path to Nibbana...and may this world never be lacking in arahants.